body language communication

The Importance of Body Language
As the audience analysis shows body language communication is a very important part of any presentation. This section explains aspects of body language communication as it applies in western society. You need to be aware of your body language from the moment you stand up until your presentation is complete. Members of your audience will analyze your body language, even if they are unaware of this at the conscious level. A brilliantly prepared presentation delivered in an interesting voice will fall well short of the mark if accompanied by negative, intrusive or hostile body language. You will probably be aware of the concept of personal space - that area around an individual into which other people should not venture uninvited. Audiences too are very conscious of this space and when presenting you should not stand within 10 feet of the audience. This distance is known as the public zone and if you violate it you are likely to antagonize those affected. This distance also creates an effective stage area in which you, the presenter, can perform. Once you are positioned in the correct zone - this will be further away the larger the audience, there are four main aspects of body language that you should consider; what to do with your eyes, what your facial expressions indicate, the positioning and movement of your body and limbs, and your hand gestures.

Be an Animated Presenter
The way that you move your body and limbs will also have a major influence on how your audience perceives you. When presenting you will normally be standing, and an ideal stance is with your feet close together and your weight evenly distributed between them. It is important not to grow roots - don't stand in one position, but try to inject movement as you speak. This helps to add a natural animation to your presentation as the audience have to adjust their gaze to follow you rather than stay looking at a fixed position. By developing a practiced way of moving you can add a confident and professional air to your presentation style. Precisely how you choose to move is a personal thing - but try to develop and rehearse your style so that you end up moving without conscious effort. Whilst it is a good thing to be animated don’t walk around too much or the audience will find it distracting and annoying. One of the best tactics is to use the main features of your presentation as cues for movement, until you have developed this skill it may be worth annotating your cue cards with movement cues or symbols.

Be Aware of the Image You Portray
When conversing socially you probably don’t think consciously about what you are doing with your arms, they are just there, moving in support of what you are saying. Somehow in a formal presentation you are constantly aware of them, hanging awkwardly from your shoulders, always seeming to be in the way. The key point about arms is to ignore them - move them back into your subconscious so that they can support what you are saying in a natural way. That said, there is one movement that you should develop when presenting which will display confidence and openness. This involves moving your arms away from your body and showing open palms to your audience. There are also negative aspects of body language that you should guard against. In particular the following two stances should be avoided:

The Negative Passive Stance
This stance involves an unbalanced position - perhaps leaning on one leg and the arms may be crossed low in front of the body in a protective way. This stance will often be accompanied by inappropriate eye contact and a nervous vocal style. The negative passive stance will portray a lack of confidence, often associated with a lack of preparation. Your audience may well see this as a sign that you do not really believe in what you are saying.

The Negative Aggressive Stance
The negative aggressive presenter is likely to stand with hands on hips, constantly intrude into the public zone, fix one or two members of the audience in a dominant gaze and have an expressionless, or even hard and unsmiling face. The negative aggressive stance portrays an arrogant, closed-minded and domineering attitude. It should be apparent that this style of presentation will not be well received and is unlikely to deliver the intended message. You may occasionally see this style of delivery used in a deliberate way by someone in authority in order to intimidate their audience.

The Ideal Presentation Stance
There are further aspects of posture that you should be aware of - as they can easily communicate subconscious messages; some of which you will want to avoid:

The Forward Sloping Stance
The forward sloping stance indicates a wish to dominate others, often it is accompanied by an over-stressed point. The presenter may be attempting to impose a concept or point of view on their audience. This is made worse by aggressive or intrusive behavior - such as entering the public zone or the use of hostile gestures.

The Backward Sloping Stance
A backward sloping stance indicates a presenter who is not happy with their situation. This defensive or submissive stance tends to indicate that they lack confidence in what they are saying and would rather not be there.

The Bent Stance
A bent posture is indicative of a person who is saying something without conviction. Saying one thing whilst meaning another - such as a salesperson giving an exaggerated sales pitch or a customer who wants to say no but has been placed in an awkward position.

The Upright Stance
The upright posture demonstrates adult, assertive behavior with no hidden meaning or manipulations in the communication. This stance indicates that the person has conviction and confidence in what they are saying. This is the posture you should practice and use when presenting.

Think About Your Hand Gestures
One of the most obvious forms of conscious body language communication is the hand gesture: The best advice when using hand signals is to be aware of the standard interpretations associated with them and avoid any with a strong negative meaning - such as a threatening gesture. When you rehearse your presentation you may want to include some pre-planned hand movements but let others occur in a natural and spontaneous way.

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